Mark Henninger & Ken Blahut12.05 2006
PAT GRAHAM & MELANIE STANDAGE: RETROSPECT (96 Gillespie Gallery)
REOPENS February 2 AT SPACE 1026, PHILADELPHIA
Screening of the Space 1026 Documentary by Ted Passon at 9pm.
Ted is showing a 20-minute cut of a work-in-progress experimental documentary about the artists and the studio space both known as Space 1026. The film is comprised of footage and interviews shot piecemeal over the Space’s nine year history. This short rough cut was done for a show that is now up at the Institute of Contemporary Art called “Locally Localized Gravity”. You can see it on a loop there or you can come out to Space 1026 tonight for a special screening of it. Look for cameos by Lightning Bolt, Calvin Johnson, and Randy Wiggims.
ENGAGING PHOTOGRAPHIC INSTALLATION IN
“PAT GRAHAM & MELANIE STANDAGE: RETROSPECT”
Jodi, Hazard Rock, 2001 by Melanie Standage
PHILADELPHIA, PA – One of the most endearing & engaging investigations of portraiture, travel, music and time in contemporary photography is on view in Pat Graham & Melanie Standage: Retrospect, at Space 1026, 1026 Arch Street, 2nd Floor, Philadelphia from January 5, 2006, through January 27, 2006.
The exhibition presents some of Graham & Standage’s best loved work in 3 separate installations and gives a compelling look at their trademark photographic styles & installation techniques.
One installation features approximately 1000 Polaroids, another a mesmerizing array of formats and film, over a hundred hand printed portraits & landscapes, while the final one is a table top display.
‘Past Perfect’ presents nearly 1000 instant pictures. While the photographs have their roots in snapshots, having been used as an informal sideline to their working lives as photographers, the rigor of the artists & their committment to documenting the culture around them transcends that heritage to create a remarkable narrative. It also gives intimate access to much of the subject matter – including portraits of many of the icons of modern independent music: eg. Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse), Ian Mackaye (Fugazi), Ted Leo, AIR, Royal Trux & Elliot Smith.
Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse) 2000
‘The Wildebeest’ is a dynamic assortment of over 100 black & white and colour photos covering numerous formats & film sizes. This series is a stream of consciousness, a photographic narrative of people & places and movement, of expectations versus memories, reality vs perception, collective memory and visual consumption. Again the content includes personal portraits of musicians and artists, as well as some of Graham’s well known live shots.
The final installation is the most recent, ‘A Forest’ is a tabletop array of portraits of trees in frames handmade from preserved wood, the tangible qualities of the frames reconciling the subject with its origins.
This duo is well known for their abilities in the darkroom, and the collection delivers some superb printing, both black & white and colour.
The exhibition as a whole has also attracted much attention: its composite parts have shown in London, Baltimore, Washington DC, Antwerp Belgium, and Portland Oregon.
” The fact that their (photos) include Sarah Cracknell of pop group St Etienne and Brett Anderson of Suede, that the nutter flying through the air of an Indiana motel room is Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse … add further spice to the ambience of this disarming collection.” – Sarah Kent, Time Out London, 2004
“This … exhibition captures the past seven years of the duo’s life with a candid honesty reminiscent of Nan Goldin’s warts-and-all spirit”
– Jessica Lack, the Guardian newspaper, UK
Bios
UK based artists Pat Graham & Melanie Standage co-direct north London art gallery 96 Gillespie – a gallery dedicated to encouraging a dialogue between UK & US artists and to being a significant venue for American artists in England.
http://www.96gillespie.com
Pat Graham is the photographer who best captured the live performances of America’s most loved & influential independent musicians during the 1990’s & early 00’s. During this period he toured endlessly with bands such as Modest Mouse, the Make Up, Tortoise and June of 44, across the USA and Europe.
His photos represent not just the bands but the scenes: the venues, audiences and instruments. He shows not only the public performances, but the behind-the-scenes back stages, tour vans, hotel rooms, studios & record labels, bringing a very intimate perspective to his work.
In 2001 he took the artist in residence position at the Grange Hall, in Wakefield Rhode Island. After which he moved his base to London, England. In 2003 Graham co-founded contemporary art gallery 96 Gillespie. He works & exhibits internationally, primarily in collaboration with his wife, photographer and designer Melanie Standage.
Pat’s photos can be found in the Experience Music Project Museum, Seattle WA, the Arlington Municipal Art Collection, Arlington VA, and in private collections around the world.
Melanie Standage is a British photographer who is known for portraits that cut against the grain of both commercial and fine art photographic conventions. Her often ironic and unexpected works highlight the normalcy of their subjects in a way that is incongruous with their surroundings. Standage uses this juxtaposition to explore notions of perception and constructed identity.
She has been working and exhibiting extensively with partner Pat Graham since 1999. They were artists in residence at the Grange Hall in Rhode Island in 2002. Her work has been included in numerous exhibitions in Europe, the U.S. and Canada.
She also has a significant career as a designer, leading large scale projects for English & European campaigns, including Philips, Nokia, Nokia Siemens, Argos, Woolworths, Thomas Cook, Waitrose, Albert Heijn, the Postbank (ING) and more.
The exhibition
Past Perfect is an exhibition of approx 1000 Polaroid photos taken between 1982 & 2006, but primarily over the years 1998- 2004. The photographers used a collection of Polaroid cameras, many old & requiring adaptation to conform to modern film stocks.
The exhibition functions as a diary of the lives of these 2 working photographers, providing informal portraits of artists, musicians & friends; as well as landscapes, urban scenes, animals, flowers, colour theory, architecture & more. The series is displayed in theme driven panels, delivering a compelling visual experience that engages the viewer on a physical & emotional level.
Pat & Melanie have been communicating & inspiring each other in this series since 1997. Together they have used the format to record fragments of time within a disposable culture. The exhibition brings together a bit of everything: Pat’s touring photos from the USA & Europe; Melanie’s street series ‘Small breed dogs of London & other places’; live shots from rock shows & parties; family events; skies; on the side at any photoshoot.
The installation itself comprises hundreds of individual art pieces that stand as a definitive ‘whole’. the artists have created modular displays that comprise a mix & match approach to art making.
Content themes pop culture icons . portraits . skyscapes . friends . family . architecture . parties . small breed dog . bassett hounds . food . cityscapes . touring . rock shows . flowers . landscapes . self portraits.
Musicians included Air . Modest Mouse . Fugazi . Quickspace . the Shins June of 44 . Sea & cake . the Makeup . Royal Trux . Tortoise . the Evens . Ted Leo . the Pharmacists . Geoff Farina . French Toast . Part Chimp . Cass Mccombs . Elliot Smith . Jenny Toomey . Judah Bauer . Brett Anderson (Suede) . Penny Rimbaud . Les Savy Fav . Sarah Cracknell (St Etienne) . At the drive in, & more
Past Perfect has previously shown at
‘Transformer Gallery’, Washington DC Oct/Nov 2005
’96 Gillespie’ Gallery, London July/Aug 2004
The Wildebeest is an allegorical photo installation that chases the themes of time, visual consumption, identity, movement, travel, growth, the difference between real & perceived experience, cultural icons, friends & highways.
The photographic narrative uses a perspective, through-the-lens, to tell its tale.
The focal point emanates from Highbury in north London but follows the couple across the highwys & bi-ways of America & western Europe as well as backwards through recent history (personal, cultural, political).
True to form Graham/Standage deliver a density of images(all handprinted in their basement). Coarsing round the gallery the installation overwhelms the viewer with images of their lives.
The Wildebeest has previously shown at
’96 Gillespie Gallery’, London July/Aug 2005
‘ Cultuur Centrum Luchtbal, Antwerp Belgium, Nov 2005 – Jan 2006
‘A Forest’ is an photographic installation featuring photos of trees presented on a tabletop in frames made of recycled wood by Wisconsin craftsman Ken Collins.
The title is taken from a Cure song on the album ‘Seventeen Seconds’. The song ‘A Forest’ is a pop gothic journey through a dream, where Robert Smith chases an elusive woman/apparition through the trees.
Graham & Standage’s ‘A Forest’ is a decorative installation featuring portraits of trees often obscured by foreground objects or overlayed elements. In their interpretation the forest itself becomes the object of desire, the object of mythicism & denial.